


The Next Step

by hariboo



Category: Hart of Dixie
Genre: F/M, Lavon Hayes/Annabeth Nass (Background)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-16
Updated: 2013-12-16
Packaged: 2018-01-04 21:32:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1085916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hariboo/pseuds/hariboo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Vivian (finally) gives her the keys to the Wilkes house it actually comes as surprise to Zoe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Next Step

**Author's Note:**

> Advent Calendar gift for @noblealice !!! And as it has been with almost all of this sadly unbeta'd.

When Vivian (finally) gives her the keys to the Wilkes house it actually comes as surprise to Zoe. She hadn’t expected it. She had stopped expecting it for a while now even though she and Vivian are closer than before. 

She and Wade have been happy enough at his place. It’s gotten a bit crowded with both of their things, sure, but that’s why it’s nice to be best friends with your landlord and Lavon lets them store a few things in his garage. When they got back together she had hoped she could move into the carriage house, but Lynly was still living there and she couldn’t very well ask Lavon to kick his cousin out just so she could have her pretty little carriage house back. Not that she didn’t love Wade’s gatehouse, but she might have had a plan to make Lynly want to switch, which didn’t really work and only ended up with her getting soaked in the pond. 

The gatehouse isn’t really that bad though, and at first when she’d still mostly living at the small apartment she moved into after moving out of Dash’s B and B, the situation is fine. They spent more than a few nights at their own placed. 

They went slow at first. Very slow. Very careful. 

But then she woke up one morning in Wade’s bed, his snores and breath against her back, and realised she hadn’t slept at her apartment in almost a week and half. She could see her jacket and shoes by the chair he kept near his bed. His jacket hanging over them. The sheets were hers and the detergent was his and she knew that the bathroom held her shampoo and hair dryer. 

She then, of course, spent the rest of the day worrying they were going too fast and they had decided on slow. They had moved so fast before and it had _felt_ right and then they didn’t even see bump in the road until too late and her heart was broken.

In the end they had worked it out, and okay, maybe Wade had to stand in her apartment asking why she had moved all her shit out of the gatehouse when she finally admitted all her thoughts. 

But they had worked it out. They had talked and he kissed and told her to pack her shit back up.

She had moved in then and let her apartment go. 

It wasn’t that it bad apartment -- they probably would have been more comfortable there, actually -- but out of some weird mutual silent agreement they never stayed there much. It was were she lived with Joel and while they had ended amicably, Wade and Joel even still talked, and she hadn’t jumped from Joel to Wade, it had felt wrong to be there together. Once Joel left it had shifted from a place she lived to a place she slept. 

Wade’s gatehouse felt like home. It had felt right. It didn’t hurt that Lavon was only minutes away.

Of course at first it all had felt perfect. 

It was different one year later and they were now bumping into their accumulated things. But it’s Wade stubs his toes on the couch because he was the new coffee table she bought -- their old one was lost to a knight of playing… well, let’s say they learned that strip Xbox does leave casualties. -- was a bit too big but so nicely built and he sighs, hands on hips, and tells her that maybe they _should_ have tried to convince Lynly move they both know that the situation is dire. He hardly ever agrees to her plans (they are not schemes, no matter what he says) even in hindsight. The next day they start looking for a new place. Quietly, but seriously. 

Lavon pouts and talks about letting them expanding the gatehouse when they tell him, but she and Wade have agreed. 

It’s time to take the next step. 

Annabeth pushes a stack of blueberry pancakes towards them and smiles, says she’s happy and proud of them. After a kick to his shins, Lavon agrees with her. Zoe smiles, but she feels the same ache Lavon does. This place even though she hasn’t been living here officially for a while was her first real home in a long time. 

They’ve been looking for a couple week, both dragging their feet, is she’s honest, and busy with the town when Vivian comes into the Rammer Jammer and tosses Wade a pair of keys as she slides in next to Zoe at the bar. He catches the keys automatically with a confused hello.

Zoe blinks.

“Welcome home,” Vivian says, asking for a white wine. It’s the same wine Zoe prefers, they’ve learned. It’s always made Zoe feel happy for some reason. 

She and Wade stare at the keys. 

“Vivian?” Zoe has to ask, because it’s been a long day and _what?_

Vivian rolls her eyes and takes a sip of her wine when Wade sets it in front of her. “Those are the keys to the Wilkes house.”

Zoe’s mind flashes back to her first time seeing the Wilkes house. How something in her, after learning it belong to her family, had wanted it even more. A strange impulse, she thought at the time, but she’s learnt her reaction to family isn’t always the norm. She wants it as much as she pushes the idea away. And now Vivian is offering it up like it’s no big deal, like it already _belongs_ to Zoe and something in her chest tightens. Biting her lips, she flits her eyes to Wade who is looking right at her. The keys flash in his hand. 

“Wait, Vivian,” Zoe says, turning to her cousin. Vivian sighs. Over the last year they’ve grown closer, sure, but sometimes it’s not easy. Zoe doesn’t alway know how to accept what the Wilkes are willing to give her and Vivian tries hard, but sometimes she doesn’t understand why Zoe still pushes back. 

“If you’re going to ask me if I’m sure you can stop right there, Zoe Hart. I’m sure. You two are looking for a place, aren’t y’all?” She looks between Zoe and Wade. 

“Yeah, but…” Wade starts and stops. There really isn’t a but. All three of them know it. 

Zoe can’t help herself. “I don’t-- I mean, we can’t--” She looks at Wade. “Wait, can we?” 

He shrugs at her, but she reads the _it’s your call, Doc_ in his eyes. Wade understands how hard family stuff can still be for her. “If Vivian here is saying it’s cool.”

Vivian smiles and touches Zoe’s arm. “I”m saying it’s cool. It’s a Wilkes house. You’re a Wilkes, Zoe.” She finishes her wine, which she’s been slowly sipping and stands. “Look, take a look around and see how it feels, but if you want it, the house is yours.”

Zoe takes a deep breath and nods. “Okay, yeah, we’ll look at it.”

Vivian’s smile grows into a grin. “All right then, gimme a call when you decide.” She gives Zoe a quick hug and throws a wave to Wade as she leaves, leaving Zoe to turn back to Wade and stare at the keys in his hands. 

After a second he leans over and kisses her cheek, pressing the keys into her palm. “We’ll go look, okay, Doc?”

She nods, eyes still on the keys. “Okay, yeah. Go look.”

\- 

That’s how she finds herself in the empty rooms of the Wilkes how hours later. Wade is looking through the kitchen and comes out, smile in place. 

“Well, I like it. We have a wall separating the kitchen from the living and another wall, plus entire hallways, separate all that from the bedroom.” He makes her laugh. She loves that about him. He’s also not wrong. “So what do you think, doc?” he asks, coming up to her, arms slipping around her waist. 

“I like it,” she says, because she does, but there’s still a knot in her stomach and it makes her tense in Wade’s arms. She does like it; it’s her family’s home. It’s a _family_ home. Empty right now but full of potential, waiting for someone to fill it with laughter and love and she’s never been been good at the latter. 

Wade brushes his lips against her temple. “We don’t have to take it, you know. Vivian will understand.”

“But I want it,” Zoe blurts out and it’s true, she realises. She wants a house, a home. One that’s warm and welcoming and that’s hers and Wade’s. 

“You sure, doc?” Wade says, one hand lifting to brush at her jaw and cup her cheek. She nods into his palm. She wasn’t before. She’s been a renter all her adult life, but she want this. The house and everything that comes with it. It’s their next step.

“Let’s take it. I want it…” she trails off, narrowing her eyes, “Unless _you_ don’t--”

He’s always been good at shutting her up. He’s only gotten better, his lips warm and a little chapped against hers. She can feel his smile against skin. His hand is still at her cheek, the other pulling her tight against him. He smell like the Rammer Jammer and their laundry detergent. 

“I was ready to say yes the second she threw me the keys.”

Zoe rolls her eyes. “That’s because you hate house hunting.”

“Well, yeah, but it’s also a nice place. And in a way it’s already yours, isn’t it?” He combs his fingers through her hair and look around the empty living. “It’s a real nice place.”

“Already imagining where you’d set your tv, aren’t you?”

He grins down at her. “Our tv, Doc.”

The way he says it, so easily, not scared at all of how the words binds them together makes her chest clench. This time in the good way. 

“Yeah, our tv.” The living room is empty of furniture, but she can see their new coffee table in it. They’d have to get a new couch though and she grins. Yeah. Ours. Sounds nice. Leaning against Wade, she reaches up and pulls him down for quick kiss. 

“Guess I”m calling Vivian and telling her we’re taking it.” She reaches up and tangles her and Wade’s fingers together. “Our house.”

Wade smacks a kiss on her head, turning her in his arms so her back is to his chest and they look out at their empty living room. 

“Home sweet home.”

“You scared?’

He laughs and holds her closer. “Terrified.”

“Me too.” She pulls his arms around her and feels him rest his chin against her head.

“You excited?”

She squeezes his hand. “More than my first time going into surgery.”


End file.
